Plumbr.eu Helps You Hunt Down Java Memory Leaks

Estonian startup Plumbr.eu has developed an algorithm to spot memory leaks in Java, and describe them in detail so that it becomes very easy for a programmer to solve the leak. While there is a plethora of applications available in the world for debugging Java memory contents, there still doesn’t exist a product that would straight help you solve the leaks. And those of you who have worked with memory leaks know they are usually hard to solve, and without a special purpose tool it often takes man-weeks of time. Plumbr runs lightweight and in the background so you can spot memory leaks before you see any OutOfMemory errors.
To use Plumbr, you just attach it to your Java application and then use your application to allow Plumbr learn the specifics of your app’s object creation patterns. When Plumbr detects a memory leak it gives you all the data you need to fix the leak. More details on usage an installation can be found in the video below.

The service has only been live for three months, but the company tells me their core features are stable and proven. Yesterday they announced support for a number of new application servers and Java configurations, meaning Plumbr should work with most Java configurations. Since their launch, the service has gotten over 1300 downloads, and the company sees a wide potential market for the service. They cite 130 000+ searched in Google each month for Java memory leak related keywords, and Plumbr.eu has seen steady growth from more and more organic search engine traffic.

Plumbr is still in beta, but co-founder Priit Potter gives us some hints about their future pricing scheme: “Plumbr is almost like an insurance policy, but better – it doesn’t refund the losses you faced because of an unforeseen problem, it rather helps you avoid any negative impact memory leaks could impose. It guards the servers and gives you precise instructions on how to fix the problem well before the end users are affected. As such, it will also be billed like an insurance policy – you’ll be able to buy a time-limited usage license for your pre-production or production environments.”

Plumbr’s new update now supports java version 5, JBoss, Glassfish, IBM Java and their Websphere, Oracle JRockit. In the future they wish to improve memory leak detection, improve installation, expand to other languages, and help solve more problems than just memory leaks, but the priorities of these plans will be driven by users’ needs.

“What gives us confidence is feedback from professionals who deal with performance problems every day.” says Potter. “They say that Plumbr is a good light-weight tool that solves an important problem – and, as such, successfully complements the bigger and more general APM (application management) solutions available.”